Missing Since: January 2, 2000 from Asheville, North Carolina Classification: Endangered Missing Date Of Birth: May 12, 1981 Age: 18 years old Height and Weight: 5'9, 165 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair, blue eyes. Quinn has scars between his ring and middle fingers on both of his hands. Clothing/Jewelry Description: A white t-shirt with a logo, a plaid button-down shirt, Tommy Hilfiger jeans or khaki pants and a gold chain necklace. Medical Conditions: Quinn has an organizational/learning disability.

Details of Disappearance

Quinn was employed at the Wal-Mart store on Hendersonville Road in Asheville, North Carolina in 2000. He departed from work at 9:00 p.m. on January 2 of that year and met his friend, Robert Jason Owens, in the store's parking lot (some agencies may spell his last name "Owen"). Quinn planned to look at a vehicle he was considering purchasing in the near future that evening. Owens said he was accompanying Quinn and they drove separate cars to the location. A security camera videotape at the Eblen Citgo gas station on Hendersonville Road showed Quinn and Owens entering the store to purchase sodas at approximately 9:15 p.m. Owens's Ford pickup truck and Quinn's light blue Mazda Protege are seen pulling away from the station on the tape several minutes later. Both vehicles were headed towards Long Shoals Road.

Owens told authorities that Quinn flashed his headlights sometime prior to 9:30 p.m. The men were near TC Roberson High School on Long Shoals Road in Asheville at the time. Owens said they both pulled over to the side of the road and Quinn told him he received a page. Owens stated that Quinn drove away to make a phone call at that time. Owens told authorities that Quinn returned approximately ten minutes later and rear-ended Owens's truck. Quinn apologized for the accident and said that he could not look at the vehicle as planned that evening. Owens said that Quinn drove away and has never been heard from again.

Owens was treated for head injuries and a broken rib he claimed to have incurred during an unrelated automobile accident during the early morning hours of January 3, several hours after Quinn disappeared. Owens stated that the accident occurred near The Waffle House restaurant on Long Shoals Road by the intersection of Interstate 26. Owens called Wal-Mart on January 4 and reported that Quinn was ill and would not be arriving for his shift that day. After giving his inital statement about Quinn's disappearance, he refused to cooperate further with police.

Quinn's Mazda Protege was discovered abandoned on January 16, two weeks after his disappearance. The vehicle was located in the parking lot of The Little Pigs Barbecue restaurant on McDowell Street. A live black Labrador puppy, approximately three months old, and a plastic hotel key were found inside Quinn's car. A pair of lips and two exclamation points had been drawn in lipstick on the rear windshield. There was no sign of Quinn at the scene. The puppy did not belong to him. The vehicle was parked nearby Mission St. Joseph's Hospital, where Quinn's grandmother, mother and sister all work as neonatal nurses.

Authorities believe that foul play was involved in Quinn's disappearance and are investigating his case as a homicide. His family said that it is extremely uncharacteristic of him to leave without warning. No charges have brought against anyone in connection with Quinn's case, although police are actively investigating it and broadcasted a filmed reinactment of his disappearance in 2005.

Quinn was involved with the ROTC in high school. He was a student at a technical school at the time of his disappearance and made good grades. His case remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Asheville Police Department 828-252-1110 OR 828-259-5910

Source Information The National Center for Missing Adults North Carolina State Bureau Of Investigation Asheville-Buncombe CrimeStoppers The Asheville Citizen-Times CrimeNews 2000 The Mountain Xpress

ASHEVILLE — Police recently retrieved hair, fingerprint and saliva samples from a friend of a man last seen at a South Asheville convenience store nearly a decade ago.

Police as of now do not consider the 28-year-old West Asheville woman a suspect or a person of interest in the disappearance and suspected homicide of Zebb Quinn, Asheville police spokeswoman Melissa Williams said in an e-mail Thursday. The Citizen-Times is not identifying the woman because she has not been charged or identified as a suspect in the case.

“As the Cold Case Unit reviewed this case file, they noted that we had not gotten a DNA profile from her. We had obtained DNA profiles from most of the rest of his social circle years ago,” Williams said. “There is no new evidence and no new leads. This was routine review of the case file and detectives looking for any unfinished work.”

Quinn, then 18 years old, disappeared after clocking out of work at the Walmart on Hendersonville Road on Jan. 2, 2000. He was last seen about 9:15 p.m. at the Citgo convenience store on Hendersonville Road. His car was found in the parking lot of Little Pigs Barbecue on McDowell Street two weeks after he vanished.

Inside the 1990 Mazda Protégé were a motel key card, a Labrador-mix puppy, several empty drink bottles, hairs, fibers and a jacket that did not belong to Quinn. On the back window, someone had drawn lips with orange-pink lipstick. The driver's seat was positioned close to the steering wheel, indicating the last person to drive the car was “short in stature,” according to the warrant, which also notes the woman from whom DNA samples were collected was 5 feet 3 inches tall.

Documents filed Thursday at the Buncombe County Magistrate's Office show that Quinn and the woman were friends and that Quinn had a strong interest in her, but the woman told detectives her relationship with Quinn was just casual.

Quinn told family and friends he was concerned about the woman because of an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. Quinn also said he was in trouble with the woman's boyfriend because of his affection for her.

A mother's decade of suffering could end if someone does the right thing in Zebb Quinn caseJohn Boyle • January 17, 2010 For most of us, it’s impossible to fathom what 10 years of anguish would feel like.Denise Vlahakis knows the felling all too well.“It just pops up sometimes, anywhere, anytime — a song, a memory, a commercial, nothing at all — it just pops up,” said Vlahakis, a registered nurse at Mission Hospital. “At work a lot of times, when you’re taking care of someone’s child, they want to know that you understand, so they ask me if I have children. I’m working in intensive care, and I always fumble at what to say and how much to say.”She’s waited a decade to learn what happened to her only son, Zebb Quinn, a devoted, naive 18-year-old who remained a source of joy till the day he went missing: Jan. 2, 2000.“Basically, all of us are, at least to a point, stuck on that day in January when he disappeared — as to having any sense of what happened, where he is, where his remains are,” Vlahakis said last week, sitting in the Mills River home she shares with her husband, local restaurateur Kosta Vlahakis. “There are people in Asheville who know what happened and could tell us.”Kosta Vlahakis also was close with Zebb. The kid always stopped by his restaurant for chicken strips, and he loved driving Kosta’s Camaro.“There’s not been a day that goes by that I haven’t had a person ask, ‘Have you heard anything?’” he said.“Closure,” Denise Vlahakis says, is a word people toss around too easily, but it does carry a grain of truth.“Just not having anything is torture,” Vlahakis said, tears welling in her eyes. “It doesn’t go away.”10 years of investigationThe Asheville Police Department’s Cold Case Unit is working 23 cases, including Quinn’s.“We have never stopped working on Zebb Quinn’s case — 10 years’ worth of investigation,” said Detective Yvonne Coburn, who with her partner, Kevin Taylor, works in the Cold Case Unit. “What we’ve done in the last year is go through the case and do some housekeeping, if you will.”It is one of the more bizarre and puzzling cases in recent memory. Quinn got off work at the Hendersonville Road Walmart at 9 p.m. and planned to go look at a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a co-worker, but as the two headed down Long Shoals Road, Quinn got a page and said he had to go. He was last seen at 9:15 p.m. at a Citgo station on Hendersonville Road.

Quinn took no clothes, no contact lens solution, no extra money — nothing that would indicate he was going away. He liked his job and had attended Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College after graduating from Roberson High School.Plus, his mom, says, he was a “bit of a mama’s boy,” in a good way, and always called her and let her know where he was going. He wouldn’t ever leave her or his sister, Brandi Stamey, hanging for a few hours, much less years.Two weeks later, his car, a 1990 Mazda Protégé, turned up in the parking lot of Little Pigs Barbecue on McDowell Street, with a Labrador-mix puppy inside and a large pair of lips drawn in lipstick on the rear window. The car contained several drink bottles and a jacket that was not Quinn’s, and the driver’s seat was close to the steering wheel, indicating a shorter person was driving.Tantalizing clues, but no case-breakers.'He was naive'In October, APD detectives gathered hair, fingerprint and saliva samples from a woman, although police said she’s not considered a suspect or person of interest. A search warrant indicated the woman and Quinn were friends, that he had a strong interest in her, partly because she was embroiled in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend.Quinn had told family and friends that he was in trouble with the woman’s boyfriend because of his affection for her. In the weeks before his disappearance, Quinn had told a Walmart co-worker that his life had been threatened.“He was naive,” Coburn said.Denise Vlahakis says all the key witnesses have all “lawyered up” and won’t talk about the case.Capt. Tim Splain, head of the APD’s criminal investigations division, said they’ve considered the case a homicide from early on, and they don’t think the killer worked alone.“Just the mechanics of killing someone and disposing of the body would lead us to believe more than one person had to be involved,” Splain said. “There’s people out there who know what happened.”Obviously, the top priority for police is solving the case and taking a dangerous killer off the streets, but investigators also would like to afford Vlahakis a small measure of comfort by finding her son’s bodyNext Page1| 2| 3Previous PageFor most of us, it’s impossible to fathom what 10 years of anguish would feel like.

Denise Vlahakis knows the felling all too well.“It just pops up sometimes, anywhere, anytime — a song, a memory, a commercial, nothing at all — it just pops up,” said Vlahakis, a registered nurse at Mission Hospital. “At work a lot of times, when you’re taking care of someone’s child, they want to know that you understand, so they ask me if I have children. I’m working in intensive care, and I always fumble at what to say and how much to say.”She’s waited a decade to learn what happened to her only son, Zebb Quinn, a devoted, naive 18-year-old who remained a source of joy till the day he went missing: Jan. 2, 2000.“Basically, all of us are, at least to a point, stuck on that day in January when he disappeared — as to having any sense of what happened, where he is, where his remains are,” Vlahakis said last week, sitting in the Mills River home she shares with her husband, local restaurateur Kosta Vlahakis. “There are people in Asheville who know what happened and could tell us.”Kosta Vlahakis also was close with Zebb. The kid always stopped by his restaurant for chicken strips, and he loved driving Kosta’s Camaro.“There’s not been a day that goes by that I haven’t had a person ask, ‘Have you heard anything?’” he said.“Closure,” Denise Vlahakis says, is a word people toss around too easily, but it does carry a grain of truth.“Just not having anything is torture,” Vlahakis said, tears welling in her eyes. “It doesn’t go away.”10 years of investigationThe Asheville Police Department’s Cold Case Unit is working 23 cases, including Quinn’s.“We have never stopped working on Zebb Quinn’s case — 10 years’ worth of investigation,” said Detective Yvonne Coburn, who with her partner, Kevin Taylor, works in the Cold Case Unit. “What we’ve done in the last year is go through the case and do some housekeeping, if you will.”It is one of the more bizarre and puzzling cases in recent memory. Quinn got off work at the Hendersonville Road Walmart at 9 p.m. and planned to go look at a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a co-worker, but as the two headed down Long Shoals Road, Quinn got a page and said he had to go. He was last seen at 9:15 p.m. at a Citgo station on Hendersonville Road.

(2 of 3)Quinn took no clothes, no contact lens solution, no extra money — nothing that would indicate he was going away. He liked his job and had attended Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College after graduating from Roberson High School.

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“If you go back through and look at solved homicides, there was always somebody who knew — the person who did it told somebody something,” Coburn said.

“So going by the psychoanalysis of homicide, we know there’s somebody who heard something that night or was told something,” the detective continued. “It may seem insignificant. They may think we’ll figure it out on our own, but we need them to come forward. It may be one small little key to solve this case and bring Zebb home.”She and Splain are understandably cautious in what they’ll say about the case, but they do believe new DNA testing techniques could provide some new clues.Over the years, they’ve received hundreds of tips and leads, and they’ve followed up on them all. But they know it’s more likely the case will be broken by somebody who knows what happened simply doing what’s right.That knowledge has to eat at a person, especially when you know you can give a long-suffering mother some measure of peace.Ten years of anguish is long enough.This is the opinion of John Boyle. Contact him at jboyle@citizen-times.com and read his blog at citizen-times.com/boyleitdown

Anyone with information about Zebb Quinn’s disappearance is asked to contact police. You can leave an anonymous tip through at 255-5050. The Asheville Police Department has established an e-mail address for tips: apdtips@ashevillenc.gov. Asheville Police Detective Yvonne Coburn can be reached at 259-5923, Detective Kevin Taylor at 259-5945.

Parent seeks easing of a nightmareDenise Vlahakis, Mills River • January 17, 2010

Print this page E-mail this article Share Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine Buzz up!Twitter FarkIt Type Size A A A Parent seeks easing of a nightmare As some co-workers and I talked about it being the beginning of a new decade, I realized that a decade has also gone by. A decade of mourning and waiting for some information that would tell me what happened to my beloved son, Zebb Quinn.What happened that cold January night of 10 years ago? What happened that took Zebb away from me, his sister, his niece and the rest of his family, who have since been longing for some news? Though the world and my life have continued on as if nothing had ever happened, a huge part of me remains in the year 2000. I never got to see him graduate from college, get married and have children.His sister, who thought she was his second mother, has beaten herself up, feeling that she should have protected him from whatever it was that happened to him, even though she had a family of her own and didn't live close by. His niece barely remembers her uncle who, by the way, adored her. His other two nieces never had the chance to know him at all and depend on our stories to be able to feel a connection to him. The rest of the family each had their own relationship with Zebb and mourn the loss of it in their own way.And why? Why did someone take him from us?Zebb's story is known well by the whole community, and I will never be able to express my thanks for all of the support they have given me and my family. You see, Zebb was a wonderful young man, and many people loved him. It is a mystery to all of us what could have possibly happened that night. It makes me very angry that there are people here in our town who have information that could give us some insight into, if nothing else, where Zebb's remains are, and yet they won't.Not only did they take Zebb's life, but in a way they took all of our lives. They know. They can change it. For now, until someone realizes it has been way too long and calls in some information to help us, all we can do is wait, day by day, to hear that the police have finally gotten the break they needed to answer our prayers.Denise Vlahakis, Mills RiverA decade of anguish: John Boyle talks to Denise Vlahakis about her missing son. See John's column online today at CITIZEN-TIMES.com.http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100...ION02/100115051

Written by Sabian WarrenASHEVILLE — Twelve years after her son disappeared and likely was killed, Denise Vlahakis is hoping a national spotlight on the case will spur new leads.

The disappearance of her son, Zebb Quinn, was presented on the Investigation Discovery Channel show “Disappeared” on Monday night.

Quinn was 18 when he vanished on Jan. 2, 2000.

“It might trigger someone’s memory or cause someone to feel that it’s been long enough and that they can go ahead and give information that they may have been afraid to before,” Vlahakis said.

The episode was filmed in Asheville in January. Vlahakis planned to watch it at her Mills River home.

The teen’s disappearance is one of the more bizarre and puzzling cases in recent memory.

Quinn got off work at the Hendersonville Road Walmart at 9 p.m. and planned to go look at a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a co-worker, but as the two headed down Long Shoals Road, Quinn got a page and said he had to go. He was last seen at 9:15 p.m. at a Citgo station on Hendersonville Road. (more...)

ASHEVILLE — To say the Zebb Quinn case has stayed with Asheville police Sgt. Chuck Sams all these years would be an understatement.

It has. It has stayed on his mind, and it has stayed underfoot, in the form of a 12-year-old Labrador-mix named Katie.Sams still believes Katie could hold the key to solving Quinn’s disappearance 12 years ago, one of the region’s best-known missing persons cases.“It’s always been such a great mystery where this dog came from,” Sams said.

monkalup - May 5, 2012 05:50 AM (GMT)

Clues, but no case-breakers in Asheville disappearance case.

4:04 PM, Apr. 20, 2012 | 2 Comments

Asheville police Sgt. Chuck Sams spends time with Katie, a Labrador-mix he adopted as a puppy after she was found in Zebb Quinn’s abandoned car. / Sabian Warren / swarren@citizen-times.com ASHEVILLE — Zebb Quinn’s disappearance case contains tantalizing clues, enough so that investigators believe even a few pieces of evidence might finally be enough to put together what happened.

Quinn was 18 when he disappeared on the night of Jan. 2, 2000.A Roberson High School graduate who had attended Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Quinn had gotten off work at the Hendersonville Road Walmart at 9 p.m. He planned to go look at a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a co-worker.But as the two headed down Long Shoals Road, Quinn got a page and said he had to go. He was last seen at 9:15 p.m. at a Citgo station on Hendersonville Road.Quinn took no clothes, no contact lens solution, no extra money — nothing that would indicate he was going away.He liked his job and always stayed in close touch with his mother and sister.Two weeks later, his car, a 1990 Mazda Protégé, turned up in the parking lot of Little Pigs Barbecue on McDowell Street, with a Labrador-mix puppy inside and a large pair of lips drawn in lipstick on the rear window.The car contained several drink bottles and a jacket that was not Quinn’s, and the driver’s seat was close to the steering wheel, indicating a shorter person was driving.In October 2009, APD detectives gathered hair, fingerprint and saliva samples from a 28-year-old West Asheville woman, although police said then she was not considered a suspect or person of interest.A search warrant indicated the woman and Quinn were friends, that he had a strong interest in her, partly because she was embroiled in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend.Quinn told family and friends that he was in trouble with the woman’s boyfriend because of his affection for her.In the weeks before his disappearance, Quinn told a Walmart co-worker his life had been threatened.Police have considered the case a homicide from early on, and they don’t think the killer worked alone.Over the years, they’ve received hundreds of tips and leads, and they’ve followed up on them all.But they know it’s more likely the case will be broken by somebody who knows what happened simply doing what’s right.http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120420/NEWS/304200025

monkalup - May 5, 2012 05:51 AM (GMT)

http://www.wlos.com/shared/newsroom/top_st..._vid_7216.shtmlA television documentary aired nationwide Monday is already bringing in calls regarding Zebb Quinn. That local missing persons case has baffled investigators for 12 years. They hope "Discovery Channel" exposure could lead to a break. Quinn disappeared in Asheville January 2, 2000. The reenactment was produced by a "Disappeared" series crew, after being filmed here back in January. Two of the eight calls that came in so far are from out of state, which is encouraging. Asheville Police detectives say they want to get Zebb's story out across the country. If you have any information, call the Zebb Quinn Tip Line: 828-259-5923